


take my hand (take my whole life too)

by noxfelicis



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV 2020)
Genre: Everybody Lives, F/M, Soulmate AU, Unbeta-ed, alex and reggie are there too, but also feel free to let me know in the comments and i'll fix it, if you see a typo no you didn't, no bobby because i don't know how to write him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-21 23:47:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30029736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noxfelicis/pseuds/noxfelicis
Summary: written for the JatP gift exchange. Prompt: soulmate au. In a world where touching someone for the first time can mean finding your soulmate, Luke forms an interesting little relationship with a girl who has shut herself off from contact. Or, 5 moments where Luke Patterson almost touches Julie Molina.
Relationships: Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 2
Kudos: 87





	take my hand (take my whole life too)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Dylkntz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dylkntz/gifts).



1.  
“I can feel it, boys. We're shaping up to have our best year yet.” Luke turns to face his bandmates as he walks, unable to contain the bounce in his step as he travels (now backwards) down the hallway.  
Alex shakes his head slowly, fighting back a grin. “What makes you so sure?”  
“Our gig last night was the perfect way to kick things off. It's only going up from here.”  
“Yeah, we killed it,” Reggie chimes in. “Not our biggest crowd, but they were into it.”  
“That's what I'm talking about! I don't care if we're playing for ten people or for ten million, so long as we have that connection. When we play, I can feel it in my soul, and last night? Our audience felt it too. I'm telling you—”  
“Watch out!” Alex cries, a second too late.  
Luke, still walking backwards, gesturing broadly as he speaks, collides with something. Someone.  
“Sorry, sorry!” He spins in place, apologizing even before he can see who he hit.  
“Who even walks without looking where they're going?” A girl, maybe a year or so younger than Luke, glares up at him. She had stepped back already, hoodie-encased arms tightly crossed.  
“I really am sorry. Are you alright?”  
She shrugs. “Whatever.”  
Luke glances over her, checking for any signs of damage. She seemed physically fine – at least, what little of her he could see, covered as she was by high-waisted jeans and an oversized royal blue hoodie – but something about her eyes makes him hesitate. Honestly, she looks moments away from crying.  
Luke is not good with crying girls. Or anyone crying. Not that he thinks people shouldn't express themselves or that feelings were bad, just he never knows what to do. Usually he makes things worse. So of course that's what he ends up doing.  
“You don't seem okay.” He reaches out a hand in an attempt at comfort and she takes another two steps back. “Oh, sorry, are you one those people that's weird about touching?”  
On the one hand, she no longer looks close to tears. On the other hand, she does look a lot closer to murder. Over the sound of his brain shrieking at him to shut up, he hears Alex face-palm behind him.  
“Sorry?” will he forever be apologizing to this girl? “Okay, yeah, I should just go.” He steps around her, a solid two feet away the whole time, hands help up but close to himself in a placating gesture. As he moves past, Luke half-hears her mutter something about “boundaries.”  
Reggie saunters up next to him once they are further down the hall. “I'm pretty sure you were about two seconds away from doing the apology dance back there.”  
Alex claps a reproving hand on Luke's shoulder. “It's not weird to not want strangers touching you. Not everyone is in the right frame of mind to meet their soulmate 24/7.”  
Luke sighs. “I guess? I mean, I'm not going to run around touching people, but who wouldn't want to know?”  
“I get it, but also meeting your soulmate via collision is not ideal. Just, really not a good first impression.”

2.  
This school is never quiet, and the music room is somewhat insulated from the hallway, so really it's a wonder Luke hears it in the first place. Someone is singing. And playing piano, he realizes, as he gets closer, but it was the singing that froze him in place and then called him to start running to it. Alex and Reggie trail behind him, likely confused as to why he took off mid-sentence.  
The voice grows stronger as he draws closer. Not just the proximity letting him hear more clearly, the singer is clearly becoming more confident, getting swept up in the powerful lyrics that Luke is beginning to be able to make out. Something about waking up, about raising your voice to the rain. As the song transitions into what Luke assumes is a bridge, he reaches the door. Hand upon the door handle, he hesitates, catching his breath. Alex and Reggie catch up, Reggie grabbing his arm.  
“Dude, what are you doing?”  
Luke whispers back, reluctant to miss any part of the performance. “Can you hear that? Whoever that is, she's amazing.”  
The other boys shrug their agreement, still puzzled. Reggie releases his grip on Luke's arm but still looks ready to stop him from going in.  
“I have to know who it is.”  
“That's– you can't just– wait,” Alex begins. He sighs. “Please. There could be a class in there.”  
Luke shakes his head. “I have the music room schedule memorized so I know when we could rehearse there. No one should be in there right now.”  
“Okay, then clearly whoever is in there isn't playing for just anyone. Isn't playing for you.”  
Luke couldn't argue with that. The song is almost done and he is missing it, but he also knows barging in would interrupt it even more than his frantic whispers. Raising his hand in a gesture of surrender, he steps back from the door.  
Alex looks at him expectantly and jerks his head towards the other end of the hall. “So let's go?”  
“Just, augh.” Luke wracks his brain for a reason to stay, to meet this vocal wrecking ball.  
And then he doesn't have to. The double doors swing open sharply, one barely clipping his elbow, and a girl comes charging through. Right before she collides with Luke, he realizes three things.  
First, it's the girl he literally ran into yesterday.  
Second, her face (at least until she sees him) is a mix of joy and tears.  
Third, he has even less of an excuse to give her about standing in the hallway than he had reasons to give Alex for staying.  
Somehow, he manages to dodge her this time. It is a small comfort to him that her expression is more confusion at her hidden audience than anger at his continuing lack of boundaries.  
“Were you – did you? Umm, how long have you been standing here?”  
Luke rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. “Not long, I swear. But you have an insanely powerful voice. Are you in the music program here?”  
She starts to nod, then stops. “I'm not. Not anymore. They kicked me out.”  
Reggie gasps. “That makes no sense. Luke's right, you're crazy good.”  
Alex elbows both of them. “I'm sorry about them. That sucks, but you don't have to tell us anything.”  
She lets out a shaky chuckle at that and seems to realizes the tears still making their way down her face. Alex fishes some tissues out of his fanny pack and she takes one gratefully.  
“It's fine. Today was the first time I've sung or played since… In a while. You can't be in the music program if you're not, y'know, making music.”  
Luke bounces forward again. “But you clearly deserve to be in the program. You just have to show them what you're capable of.”  
She looks around at these three guys that have somewhat ambushed her following what was clearly an emotional performance.  
“Thank you? I'll think about it.”  
Luke barely stops himself from reaching out to her. “Please do more than think about it. I know you don't know us, but maybe that means you'll trust that I'm not trying to spare your feelings or anything. What little I heard of your voice blew me away. And if you need anything to help you get back in that program, we're here.”  
The girl actually laughs a little now. “You're right, I don't even know you.”  
“Well, I'm Luke, if that helps. These are my bandmates, my boys, Alex and Reggie.” He moves to offer his hand for her to shake and stops himself again. She doesn't want that, focus.  
Alex waves when Luke says his name, Reggie does jazz hands.  
“You have a band?”  
“Sunset Curve,” Alex clarifies.  
“Tell your friends!” Reggie adds.  
“Uh, yeah. Sure.” She lets herself smile at their antics for a moment. “I'm Julie.”

3.  
They are on stage and Julie has just rocked the room with her killer vocals (and Luke's lyrics, and Sunset Curve's musical support, but whatever). The principal and the head of the music program are heading over, and Julie fiddles with fitting her microphone back into the stand, clearly avoiding eye contact with them until she absolutely has to face her fate.  
“Need a hand, Molina?”  
She rolls her eyes at him, but some of the tenseness disappears from her shoulders, so he'll chalk that up as a win. “You think I can't handle a mic?”  
“Please, you were born with a mic in your hand.”  
That gets a laugh. “That makes no sense, you dork.”  
Luke grins in response. The principal is standing by the edge of the stage now, watching their conversation. He nudges Julie, just the toe of his sneaker against the side of her shoe, but she still jumps in place at the contact. Biting back a question, pushing down any hurt from her reaction, Luke just jerks his head towards their audience of one. “Ready to face the, uh, well I guess not the music, you already did that.”  
“Right.” She lets out a shuddering breath and squares her shoulders.  
“Hey, if you could handle this, you're set for anything. There's no way you're not back in.”  
Julie tosses him a grin over her shoulder as she walks away. “Whatever you say, pep-talk Patterson.”  
“You got this, boss!” he can't resist hollering after her.  
Reggie comes up behind him and rests an elbow on Luke's shoulder. “Sooooo, you going to help pack out or just flirt with Julie all night?”  
Luke shoves him off. “I'm just telling her what we already know is the truth.”  
“Just make sure you're being honest with yourself too.” Reggie ambles off, ignoring Luke flipping him the bird as he goes.

4.  
Luke is lying on the floor, a few feet away from where Julie sits in the only other clear space. Luke feels bad for not tidying up his room more before she came over, but in his defense he hadn't known she was coming. Half an hour ago he texted her about their latest musical project, and less than 10 minutes later she was at the front door. Something about her expression had warned him that this was less about an eagerness to write and more about a determination to avoid something else. He hadn't pressed the matter.  
Now they're in his room, his clothes and discarded song ideas cluttering most surfaces of the already small space. Luke turns his head to the side, shifting his gaze from the ceiling to Julie. Her typical long sleeves are pulled down over her hands. He knows it's not because of the cold, but he contemplates adjusting the thermostat anyway. As if that would get her comfortable around him. As if she would let him see more of her – figuratively – than the bits and glimpses she has let slip over the past few weeks.  
Julie taps the end of her pencil against her notebook cover, a stuttering rhythm that throws off Luke's train of thought. Another moment passes before she notices him staring up at her.  
“What?” she asks, one corner of her mouth quirking up.  
“Nothing, just distracted. And I think you are too.”  
“Maybe.” She flip the notebook open to the page of the song she was allegedly here to work on. “So you texted me that you had a new idea for the bridge?”  
He sits up and flips his hair out of his eyes. “Yeah, I think we could work in more of a back-and-forth? Like frame it almost as a conversation where we're singing in turn.”  
“The same lyrics we had already or something different?”  
Leaning forward to see the page she holds out towards him, as if he doesn't have it memorized, as if he doesn't commit everything about every interaction they have to memory, Luke hums to himself, bouncing his hand about in the air in the shape of the melody. “Mostly the same, maybe tweak these lines.” He reaches towards the notebook, pointing to a few words he thinks need to change. She nods and moves to adjust it, her own hand hovering over the page as she waits for his explanation.  
“So instead of the future tense and plural pronouns we've been using in the chorus, it'll shift present, and singular, and–” and he has scooted across the floor without even thinking about it, leaning over the paper, head inches from hers. Julie nods along with what he's saying. She crosses out words and pencils in the changes he rambles on about. In his periphery, he feels more than sees her glance quickly at him, but she doesn't shy away.  
And then his words catch up with his brain and he runs out of an excuse to be in her space. Luke inches away. She shoots him a grateful look. And he knows, she may not have pulled back, but she didn't lean in either. Luke also knows he's willing to wait.

5.  
They're performing in fifteen minutes and Luke calls for a band circle. His boys on either side of him, Julie across. And sure, he feels more than a twinge of jealousy that as they all link hands, Reggie and Alex get to touch her. He knows it's different, knows Alex is gay and Reggie gets soul vibes off of just about every other person he meets, but he can't help feeling a little rejected. And then he meets her eyes across the circle, and the joy he sees there spills over into his own heart. She wouldn't be holding back from him if she didn't think there was a chance.  
“Now or never on three,” he says, and they pile their hands in the center together. Luke on the bottom, Julie stacked above Alex and Reggie. He can feel the weight of her hand through the boys' hands as they bounce up and down. He's careful, a little slower to swing his hand up, making sure Julie's is clear first.

+1  
Julie Molina did not want to know who her “soulmate” was.  
The concept of soulmates had never fully sat right with her, even on a good day. The idea that the first time you make skin contact with the “right” person (who even determined that?), you would both know you were destined for each other? And that said knowledge was often accompanied with some extra connection? It was all just a little much.  
Call her crazy, but Julie didn't really want to end up psychically linked with a stranger just because some meddlesome higher power thought they were meant to be.  
And after her mom died, Julie saw firsthand what it was like to lose a soulmate. Her dad kept it together for her and Carlos as best he could, but Julie could tell how empty he felt. Her parents' shared gift was anticipating needs. From big things to little things, even just knowing when to pass each other the salt, or finding lost keys, or knowing the perfect comfort movie for a hard day. And without Rose? Her dad had to figure out everything all over again on his own, while looking out for his kids, while grieving the love of his life.  
The loss Julie had felt at her mom's death gutted her. Facing the possibility of something like that again, but worse? Letting someone have a part of herself, letting someone become a part of herself, just to know it could all be ripped away at any moment? The thought was beyond terrifying. It was unfathomable.  
So she held back. She wore long sleeves and hid behind her hair. She avoided handshakes, fist bumps, careless hugs, any kind of contact with anyone she hadn't touched before Rose's death. Anyone she thought there was a chance of losing herself to. She thought she was safe.  
But then Sunset Curve came into her life. Julie hadn't worked up the courage to tell Luke this yet, but it was his words about connecting through music that gave her the strength to finally play again. He'd run into her because she was too distracted by what he was saying to get out of the way. And then they'd been there for her again, and again, and suddenly soulmates or not they were entrenched in her life.

The first time she touched Reggie it wasn't on purpose. He and the other boys were over at the Molina home for Saturday rehearsal, and between songs Carlos kept tempting Reggie away to play catch with him. Julie loved the way Carlos had essentially adopted Reggie as an older brother, though sometimes the mutual immaturity had her wondering if the two were actually the same age.  
She had stepped out of the studio to grab a drink of water as she heard Reggie close by call, “my bad, little dude, I'll get it.” A baseball rolled to a stop by her feet, and without thinking she reached for it just as Reggie did. A pulse danced across their touching fingertips and she pulled away. “Was that?”  
He stood up, tossing the ball back and forth as his hands were used to the sensation. “I connect a little bit with a lot of people. A different thing that the romantic soulmates vibe. I actually don't think I have one.”  
“You don't have a soulmate? Reggie, we're in high school, the odds that you just haven't met them yet are pretty high.”  
“Yeah, but I don't really see myself looking. I like the way it works for me now. I get little glimpses of everyone I care about.” He gives her a quick grin. “I always knew you had music in your soul, but it's even better than I assumed.”

Alex was on purpose. He had opened up to her about his fears of never meeting someone, anxieties about something happening to the band, worries about his place in the world. Julie reached for his hand without a second thought, knowing that she wouldn't be the match for him, but wanting to give whatever support she could.  
“I know there's an amazing guy out there for you who's going to just knock you off your feet. And the rest of us aren't going anywhere. You'll always have the band, and we'll always have a place for you, no matter what.”  
He squeezed her hand in response before letting her pull him into a hug. “Thanks, Julie.”

So really that just left Luke.  
He is riding shotgun as she drives. It's her family's car, but unlike Luke she has her father's trust and access to the keys. They landed a gig about two hours away, and while normally they would all pile into Reggie's ancient van or Julie's dad would drop her off and the boys drive separately, it's not the best solution for a longer drive. Luke had volunteered to ride with her, pointing out that they had the most similar taste in music. Alex, after giving Luke a strange look, had admited that Luke was surprisingly good at giving directions. That conversation had devolved into wet willy attempts at the use of “surprisingly” followed by other antics, but Julie had been convinced.  
Luke's got his feet propped up, seat fully reclined, hands drumming out a rhythm on his thighs to the music, voice fading in and out as he switches between trying to save his voice for the show and letting himself belt along to one of his favorite songs. Pinks and oranges streak across the sky to their left, the setting sun casting a warm light over the dashboard.  
With a soundtrack of their favorite bops intermittently accompanied by Luke, Julie's thoughts wander. Sure, her eyes are on the road, but her mind is miles away, mid-dance sequence with a conveniently vague partner. He spins her around, dips her dramatically, holds her close.  
Julie hasn't really let herself fantasize about being that close with a guy in a while. She's felt so closed off from anything like that, but with the band and her music, she's opening up again, little by little.  
“You with me, boss?”  
Luke's voice jostles her out of her wandering and she focuses on driving again for a moment before answering him. “Yeah, just thinking.”  
“If you need me to drive?” He's grinning at her, trademark Luke Patterson puppy eyes on full blast.  
Julie laughs. “No way, my dad is stressed enough about us driving back so late. You know he doesn't need to be worrying about your driving too.”  
“I am an excellent driver.”  
“Uh-huh.”  
“I am! No one seems to believe me on that.”  
“Weird.”  
“So weird.”  
A new song started playing, and Julie waits until the second verse starts to voice her thoughts. “Do you still think I'm weird?”  
“For not letting me drive?”  
“No,” she says. She drums her fingers against the steering wheels to burn some of this nervous energy bubbling up. “For not letting people touch me.”  
Luke lets his feet fall from the dash and sits up. His hand scrabbles against the seat controls to bring the seatback to an upright position again. He twists in his seat to face her fully, seatbelt stretching oddly over his hips. “If this is about what I said forever ago, I'm so sorry.”  
Julie's glad to have the excuse of driving to keep her from meeting his gaze. “It's not that, I promise.”  
“Really, you know I can say stupid stuff and if that's been –”  
“No, I just meant –”  
They both quiet at the same time, self-conscious about talking over each other. Julie takes a deep breath and starts again.  
“I know it's weird, and I've been thinking about it, and I do want to.”  
Luke's quiet for another moment. “Want to what?”  
“I want to know if it's you.” Now she looks at him, and the last of the sunlight splashes across his face, turning his green eyes golden. He's frozen and on fire all at once.  
“You sure?” he asks softly.  
Silently, she slips her hand off the steering wheel and towards him, her left hand still clinging to a semblance of control. She can't look at him anymore (and not just because of all the road safety lessons her dad has drilled into her).  
“Julie.” Luke's voice breaks. “If –”  
Her hand finds his. Hesitantly, her fingers skate across his knuckles, the barest of touches.  
Julie has been so afraid all along, abstractly and then particularly with Luke, of finding a soulmate and risking loss. She hadn't even thought to be afraid of what happened if nothing happened.  
Luke turns his hand over, the calluses on his fingertips delightfully rough against her wrist. “Do you feel it too?” he whispers.  
And then she does. A warmth, a soft mirth flowing into her from where they connect. A bubbly nervousness that blends so well with her own she hadn't noticed it at first. Their emotions build and swirl around each other, creating the best feedback loop Julie can honestly say she's ever encountered.  
She laughs for the pure joy of it. “Now what?” If she looks at him, she'll never focus on the road again.  
Luke laughs too. “Jules, you were already stuck with me and the boys for the rest of our lives. This?” – he presses a soft kiss to the back of her hand – “This just makes everything even better.”  
“Yeah,” she breathes. “It does.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!! My tumblr is peregrer, and while I don't reblog or post a whole lot of JatP content at the moment, I'm always happy to follow other creators and fill my dash with y'all's amazing work. Feel free to leave a kudos and/or comment if you enjoyed the fic. <3


End file.
